Front door security

Personally I'd fit a simple Yale Nightlatch lock

David,

Is this the sort of door that you have?

A nightlatch would solve the immediate problem. Door security in more depth:

Then use the door chain.

Then lock it when you've come in. Not that burglars go round trying front doors on the off chance - they go round the back. Only something like 4% of burglaries are through the front door.

Yes, that's very similar to the one I have. Possibly the same. The developer would have bought scores of them in 1996/7.

I'm not too sure how I would go about fitting an additional lock into a metal door. Is it still a chippies job?

I thought about removing the external handle, and fitting some sort of blank end, but I'm not sure that they exist.

DJ

one?

Heard something from the front door one afternoon a couple of years ago and got up to investigate. As I did so I saw a car outside the house with a couple or three yoofs inside it who, when they saw me, motioned towards what turned out to be a fourth on the drive. When I got to the front door it was off the latch and slightly open. Went outside and the car load asked a pointless question about the route to town. Pointless because the roads into our estate go nowhere but the estate. They left, grinning.

Looks like they were after anything the could find in the hallway once they had opened the unlocked door: bags, car keys. A call to the police informed us they had had a bag from a house round the corner.

We now lock the door when we're in.

As an aside, previous 'events' with being locked out after a door with a Yale lock has blown shut has led me not to use them.

It's like the top one.

But that picture does not show the 2 hardened pins - rather like the 4 shown clearly in the bottom pic.

I reckon that the lock is secure enough. The security chain system looks a tad flimsy...

DJ

On Sun, 28 Jun 2009 16:48:05 +0100, a certain chimpanzee, David J randomly hit a keyboard and produced:

This is one of the jobs for which I need a round tuit. I've bought the night latch lock, and read up how to fit it from t'interweb

In the meantime, I always as a matter of habit turn the rack bolt. This might not work if you're not the only one living in the house. If so, you could lock the mortice lock from the inside if someone's out, and take the key out of the lock (so that someone else can open it from the outside).

Can't see what the problem is. "The main disadvantage is that during the day, when the front door is unlocked, anybody can simply open the front door and walk in!"

So, leave the chain on or leave the key in the lock, in the locked position. That way nobody from outside can get in but someone inside can get out (in case of fire).

Thanks for the heads-up about making the hole in the metal door. I might go for this solution myself now.

DJ

My front door is around the back and my back door around the front. Does that make me largely immune from burglaries????

:)

Mark